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Twenty years ago, Peace Connections was started as the Newton Area Peace Center by various people, including David Janzen, Gordon Hauser, and Ruth Cooper, who were active or interested in peace activities and who wanted a more consolidated effort. Wayne Swartzendruber offered space above his donut shop to house a peace center and the NAPC was born.

Early on, a major focus was nuclear disarmament. NAPC members participated in a phone tree to alert each other when the white train, which carried nuclear warheads from Amarillo, TX, to a Trident submarine base in Washington state, might be passing through. People would meet at Druber's to carpool to the train tracks where the train might come, and protest its appearance. NAPC members also met monthly at the Titan II missile silo near Potwin to vigil and pray against nuclear terror.

Another focus was war in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Some NAPC members got involved in the underground railroad, which helped transport refugees from the U.S. border in south Texas to Chicago.

NAPC-ers also protested at McConnell AFB, where several people were arrested and given restraining orders.

Environmental issues were also explored. Members of NAPC began Newton's first recycling program and saved many truckloads of materials from being dumped in the landfill.

Four years ago, in response to needs expressed by peace and justice committees of supporting churches, the Newton Area Peace Center began to offer programs to help people develop peace within themselves. A quote that exemplifies this idea is "Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." The underlying principle was that people who practice peace daily connect more effectively with others to create more peace in the world. To signal the change in focus, the organization was renamed "Peace Connections."

Three years ago, to increase the visibility of Peace Connections, the Board of Directors took the big step to move from above Druber's to Main Street. Peace Connections has also included members from non-Mennonite churches on the Board of Directors, and begun to strengthen connections with area church of various denominations.

To acknowledge 20 years of peace-related efforts, Peace Connections will have special events the week of March 22-31 and at the annual meeting on March 30. (See the What's Going On section for more details).

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